Praśna II, Adhyāya 1, Kaṇḍikā 2

1. Now (follow the offences) causing loss of caste (patanīya),^[1]

2. (Viz.) making voyages by sea,^[2]

3. Stealing the property of a Brāhmaṇa or a deposit,

4. Giving false evidence regarding land,

5. Trading with merchandise of any description (whether forbidden or not),

6. Serving Śūdras,

7. Begetting a son on a female of the Śūdra caste,^[3]

8. And becoming thereby her son.^[4]

9. (For those who have) committed one of these (offences the following penance is prescribed);^[5]

10. 'They shall eat every fourth meal-time a little food, bathe at the time of the three libations (morning, noon, and evening), passing (the day) standing and (the night) sitting. After the lapse of three years they throw off their guilt.'^[6]

11. 'A Brāhmaṇa removes the sin which he committed by serving the black race during one day and one night, if he bathes during three years at every fourth meal-time.'^[7]

12. Now (follow) the minor offences, entailing loss of caste (upapātaka),^[8]

13. (Viz.) intercourse with females who must not be approached (agamyā, e.g.) cohabitation with the female friend of a female Guru, with the female friend of a male Guru, with an Apapātra woman, and a female outcast, following the profession of medicine, sacrificing for many, living by (performances on) the stage, following the profession of a teacher of dancing, singing and acting, tending cows and buffalos, and similar (low occupations, as well as) fornication.^[9]

14. The expiation (prescribed) for these (offences is) to live as an outcast during two years.^[10]

15. Now (follow the offences) which make men impure (asucikara),^[11]

16. (Viz.) gambling, performing incantations, subsisting by gleaning corn though one does not perform an Agnihotra, subsisting by alms after one has finished one's studentship, living, after that has been finished, longer than four months in the house of one's teacher, and teaching such a (person who has finished his studentship), gaining one's livelihood by astrology and so forth.^[12]

17. But the expiation of these (offences is to perform penances) during twelve months, during twelve fortnights, during twelve times ten days, during twelve se’nnights, during twelve times three days, during twelve days, during six days, during three days, during a day and a night, during one day, in proportion to the offence committed.^[13]

18. Now outcasts shall live together and (together) fulfil their duties, sacrificing for each other, teaching each other, and marrying amongst each other. If they have begot sons, they shall say to them, 'Depart from among us; thus you will again reach the Āryas.'^[14]

19. For the organs do not become impure together with the man.

20. (The truth of) that may be learned from this (parallel case); a man deficient in limbs begets a son who has the full number of limbs.

21. Hārīta declares that this is wrong.

22. For wives may be (considered) similar to the vessel which contains the curds (for the sacrifice). If one makes impure milk curdle in a milk-vessel and stirs it, the Śiṣṭas do not use the (curds thus produced) for sacred rites.

23. In like manner no intercourse can be held with that (offspring) which is produced from impure seed.

24. If they desire it, (they may perform) a penance,

25. (Viz. in the case of males) the third part (of the penance prescribed) for crimes causing loss of caste (patanīya); for females the third part (of that).^[15]

26. Now they quote also (the following verse): 'If he applies sesamum to any other purpose, but food, anointing, and charitable gifts, he will be born again as a worm and, together with his ancestors, be plunged into the ordure of dogs.'^[16]

27. He who sells sesamum, forsooth, sells his ancestors; he who sells rice, forsooth, sells his life; he who gives away his daughter, making a bargain, forsooth, sells portions of his spiritual merit.

28. Grass and wood, in its natural state, may be sold.^[17]

29. Now they quote also (the following verse): 'Animals that have teeth in one jaw only, as well as minerals excepting salt, and undyed thread, these, O Brāhmaṇa, are the goods which thou art permitted to sell.'^[18]

30. (If he has committed) any offence excepting a^[19] mortal sin (pātaka) he may either give to a learned Brāhmaṇa (anūcāna) a hairy cow of brown or red-dish colour, after sprinkling her with clarified butter and scattering black sesamum seeds over her;

31. Or (he may offer burnt oblations), reciting the Kūṣmāṇḍas, during twelve days,^[20]

32. '(Thus) he will be freed. from the guilt (of any crime that is) less (heinous) than the murder of a learned Brāhmaṇa.'

33. If one is accused of a mortal sin (pātaka), a Kṛcchra (penance must be performed by the accused).^[21]

34. The accuser (shall perform) that (Kṛcchra penance during) a year.^[22]

35. 'He who during a year associates with an outcast, becomes (likewise) an outcast; not by sacrificing for ḥim, by teaching him or by (forming) a matrimonial (alliance with him), but by using the same carriage or seat.'^[23]

36. The penance for eating impure substances is to fast until the entrails are empty. That is attained in seven (days and) nights.^[24]

37. (Subsisting on) water, milk, clarified butter, (and) fasting,--each for three days,--(and taking the three fluids) hot, that is a Taptakṛcchra penance.^[25]

38. (Eating) during three days in the morning only, during the (next) three days in the evening only, (subsisting) during (another) three days (on) food given unasked, and fasting during three days, (that is) a Kṛcchra penance.^[26]

39. (If the period of twelve days is divided into) three (periods of) four days, that is the Kṛcchra penance of, women, children, and aged men.^[27]

40. If (observing the rule given) above one eats (at each meal) so much only as one can take at one (mouthful), that is an Atikṛcchra penance.^[28]

41. (If one) subsists on water only, that is a Kṛcchrātikṛcchra, the third (in the order of the Kṛcchra penances).^[29]

42. During a Kṛcchra penance (the following rules must be followed, viz.) to bathe at morn, noon, and evening,^[30]

43. To sleep on the ground,

44. To wear one garment only, to shave the hair of the head, of the beard, and of the body, and to clip the nails.

45. The same (rules apply) to women except (that referring to) shaving the head.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

2. Āpastamba I, 7, 21, 7-11.

[2]:

Govinda explains samudrasaṃyānam, 'making voyages by sea,' by 'voyaging by means of ships to another continent (dvīpa).'

[3]:

The MSS. from Gujarāt and the Dekhan read instead of-this and the next Sūtras, yaśca śūdrāyām abhiprajāyate tadapatyaṃ ca bhavati, 'and he who begets (offspring) on a Śūdra female, and thereby becomes her son.'

[4]:

Govinda explains the Sūtra as a prohibition against allowing oneself to be adopted by a Śūdra (śūdraputrabhāvaḥ | tavāham putro ’smīty upajīvanam).

[5]:

The Dekhan and Gujarāt MSS. again have a different reading, teṣāṃ to nisveṣaḥ, 'but the atonement of these offences (is as follows).'

[6]:

Āpastamba I, 9, 25, 10. All the MSS. read in the last pāda 'tribhir varṣais tad apahanti pāpam.' The correct reading is that given by Āpastamba loc. cit., 'tribhir varṣair apa pāpaṃ nudante.'

[7]:

Āpastamba I, 9, 27, 11. Govinda explains the Sūtra as referring to cohabitation with a female of the 'black race.' By the latter term he understands a Cāṇḍālī, adding that others believe p. 219 a Śūdra female to be intended. It is, however, more probable that Baudhāyana took the verse to forbid twice-born men to serve Śūdras.

[8]:

Āpastamba I, 7, 21, 9.

[9]:

Gautama XXI, is. In explanation of the term agamyā, a female who must not be approached,' Govinda quotes Nārada XII, 73-74, and he takes the four classes of females, who are specially mentioned, not as examples illustrating the term agamyā, but as not included in and additional to the latter. Physicians and the other professional men enumerated are usually not mentioned among the upapātakins, but occur in the lists of those whose gifts must not be accepted, and of those who defile the, company at a funeral dinner, ej. Vasiṣṭha III, 3; XIV, 2, 3, 11. The expression 'sacrificing for many' (grāmayājanam) appears to be a description of the so-called 'Yajamāna Vṛtti, by which the modern Bhaṭṭagīs, or priests who officiate for hire, subsist. In explanation of the term nāṭyācāryatā, 'following the profession of teaching dancing, music, and acting,' Govinda says that 'instruction in the works of Bharata, Viśākhila, and others' is intended. Baudhāyana no doubt intends to forbid the instruction of professional dancers and actors in actual works on their art, such as the nāṭya-sūtras mentioned by Pāṇini.

[10]:

'To live as an outcast, i.e. to subsist by begging.'--Govinda.

[11]:

Āpastamba I, 7, 21, 12-19; I, 10, 29, 15.

[12]:

Govinda is probably right in asserting that the word ca, 'and (so forth),' is intended to include other not-named offences.

[13]:

Āpastamba I, 10, 29, 17-18.

[14]:

-23. Āpastamba I, 10, 29, 8-14.

[15]:

I.e. males shall live, according to the rules given above in Sūtras 10-11, during one year, and females during four months.

[16]:

Vasiṣṭha II, 30.

[17]:

Āpastamba I, 7, 21, 2.

[18]:

The permission to sell 'stones' or minerals contradicts Vasiṣṭha II, 24.

[19]:

Regarding the definition of the term 'anūcāna,' see above, I, 11, 21, 13.

[20]:

Regarding the efficacy of the Kūṣmāṇḍa texts, see ej. Gautama XIX, 12; XXII, 36.

[21]:

Vasiṣṭha XXIII, 37-38.

[22]:

Vasiṣṭha XXIII, 39.

[23]:

Vasiṣṭha I, 22.

[24]:

Āpastamba I, 9, 27, 3-4; Vasiṣṭha XXIII, 30. I follow here the Gujarāt and Dekhan MSS., which read amedhyaprāśane prāyaścittir naiṣpurīṣyaṃ tat saptarātreṇāvāpyate. M. and the two MSS. of the commentary give amedhyaprāśane prāyaścittam and leave the remainder out. The commentary states that the penance intended is the Taptakṛcchra, described in the next Sutra. The parallel passages of Āpastamba and others leave no doubt that the northern MSS. in this case have preserved the older form of the text.

[25]:

Vasiṣṭha XXI, 21.

[26]:

Vasiṣṭha XXI, 20. M. and the two MSS. of the commentary omit the word 'kṛcchraḥ' at the end of the Sūtra.

[27]:

Vasiṣṭha XXIII, 43.

[28]:

Vasiṣṭha XXIV, 2.

[29]:

Vasiṣṭha XXIV, 3. Govinda gives another explanation of the word tṛtīyaḥ, 'the third,' according to which it is to refer to the third tryahaḥ, or 'period of three days.'

[30]:

-44. Vasiṣṭha XXIV, 4-5.